Wednesday 16 January 2013

A Power Cut Strikes



via Pinterest
Last night it was all going so well.  Snow outside but inside warm and toasty. The OH happily watching TV, a nature documentary about polar bears in the wild...I was about to conference call a client in New Zealand...when it all went black.  Zero! No lights, no TV, no wi-fi.  Incroyable!!

The number of times we both tried turning on switches ..our brains are just so tuned in to having and "needing" electricity!! We ended up going to bed by candlelight.  No...it wasn't romantic it was COLD! 

Even the chainsaw works by electricity....we had enough for our fabulous burner downstairs but not enough pre-cut wood to fit the tiny burner upstairs.  So I went to bed wearing thermals and a hot water bottle.

I had taken out some Jersusalem Artichokes to defrost ready to make a soup for lunch today - the recipe was on my laptop! My OH recently returned from a  trip to England reminded me that the freezer was full of bagels, brown sliced bread, hot cross buns and crumpets....oh boy were we going to have a feast along with the last of my precious raspberries from last summer!

This morning we found out that it was only our house in the village without any electricity.  Our neighbour Marc tried to help but ended up ringing EDF for us.  They promised they would be here during the morning.  Being English and pretty cynical I did not believe that for a moment.  Anyway at 12.20 a very jolly man from EDF arrived and soon found that the problem was a very very old fuse, maybe 50 years old. 

So did the polar bear die??? The OH doesn't know OMG!!
So did I miss lots of emails and phone calls...I don't think so!!!
Lesson learned...always have our mobiles charged up...
and we need more candles and matches ......

It's funny that when our kids were small and we still lived in England we used to go away camping every weekend in the summer with a Medieval re-enactment group.  We used to leave our mobile phones in the car..we were creating an authentic living history campsite and no technology was allowed.  A wood fire, good company, singing and a few(!!!) drinks were all we needed!  We all loved it.  What has gone wrong??

Even living in the depths of rural France we are so reliant on electricity for our work, to play and, probably most importantly to keep in contact with family and friends.

We pride ourselves on living a simpler, more sustainable and less complicated life here in Le Morvan.. but without electricity....how do we do that??? 

Imagine how life without electricity would impact you....let me know what you think!
 

1 comment:

  1. I hear you. Interesting experiences, right? During the recent Hurricane Sandy here in NY, we were without power for four days, others much longer and deeply affected. For me, luckily, the experience was beautiful, although definitely also challenging. I wrote an article published on elephant journal about it called "22 Blackout Blessings" you can find there if interested. Enjoyed the picture you paint. Glad you have heat and communications back.

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